Contents
- 1 Was Hastings corrupt in Line of Duty
- 2 Is Hastings innocent
- 3 What did Hastings get disciplined for
- 4 What is Hastings catchphrase in Line of Duty
- 5 Why did Hastings have 50k
- 6 Why did Hastings give Steph 50k
- 7 Will Line of Duty ever come back
- 8 Was buckles the fourth man
- 9 How many seasons of Line of Duty are there
Was Hastings corrupt in Line of Duty
7. Superintendent Ted Hastings, played by Adrian Dunbar – BBC/World Productions/Steffan Hill Bent-ometer: 50/100 Ted Hastings talks a big game. It’s always bent coppers this, bent coppers that. But, as we discovered in series 5, he’s not so squeaky clean himself.
He wasn’t ‘H’, of course – the show couldn’t survive without him and his silly catchphrases spearheading the bent copper operation. But, in the finale, we learned how grim his life had become in the wake of a dodgy investment that left him penniless and destroyed his marriage. Worse than the revelation that he watches porn so dodgy that it merits the destruction of the laptop it was viewed on (and that he does it from a Travelodge), was the way in which so many threads remained loose.
He may well have passed on the information to the OCG that John Corbett was undercover police, thus assisting in his death. He definitely skimmed £50k off the top of the bribery money he was handed, and passed it on to Corbett’s wife, which, while a kind gesture, is still a very bent thing to do.
Is Hastings innocent
After serving 38 years for a murder he didn’t commit, Maurice Hastings has finally been declared innocent. Maurice Hastings, who spent more than 38 years behind bars for a 1983 murder he did not commit, appears at court in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
What is Hastings famous saying in Line of Duty?
“There’s only one thing I’m interested in.” – A true classic. During a confrontation with lawyer Gill Biggeloe back in season three, Hasting dropped the truly legendary line and has adopted it as a regular catchphrase since. “There’s only one thing I’m interested in and that is catching bent coppers.” Mic drop.
What did Hastings get disciplined for
Episodes –
No. overall | No. inseries | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers(millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
24 | 1 | “Episode 1” | 31 March 2019 ( 2019-03-31 ) | 13.20 | ||
An organised crime group (OCG) hijacks a police convoy transporting seized drugs and kills three armed officers; AC-12 suspect that may be involved. Sergeant Jane Cafferty survives the attack, drawing suspicion. PC Maneet Bindra is interviewed by Superintendent Hastings, DS Steve Arnott and DI Kate Fleming, due to her involvement with her cousin, Vihaan Malhotra, in spying on AC-12 and leaking information to the organised crime group for ACC Derek Hilton. In a further attempt to protect Malhotra, she contacts the organised crime group. Corbett accuses her of infiltration and she is killed. AC-12 discover that the undercover officer (UCO) is DS John Corbett and not, as originally assumed, Lisa McQueen. | ||||||
25 | 2 | “Episode 2” | John Strickland | Jed Mercurio | 7 April 2019 ( 2019-04-07 ) | 12.43 |
Lisa McQueen blags her way past a police guard and Cafferty’s husband to talk to her in private. Another police leak enables the OCG to carry out a raid led by Corbett on a weapons convoy. Cafferty is found with £5,000 in a brown envelope by Arnott in his attempts to gather information. Corbett convinces him he is “straight”. Hastings is approached by Mark Moffatt regarding his failed property investment. Moffatt hands him a big brown envelope. Roisin Hastings insists on their divorce. From photographs, Cafferty identifies who recruited her. | ||||||
26 | 3 | “Episode 3” | John Strickland | Jed Mercurio | 14 April 2019 ( 2019-04-14 ) | 12.59 |
Arnott tells Fleming and Hastings of his liaison with Corbett. After their initial shock, they agree to continue with Arnott’s proposal. AC-12 identify that the organised crime group are involved in at a block of flats. AC-12 raid the flats and the group’s print shop. Corbett tips Arnott off about a larger-scale raid on the Eastfield police depot and states that a corrupt senior police officer will be there. Arnott is drawn away from the raid by a false ‘Status Zero’ call. Corbett shoots the senior police officer, who arrives with tracker information, and is revealed to be DCS Hargreaves. Corbett, on learning of his death, flees. Using false, he enters Roisin Hastings’s flat. | ||||||
27 | 4 | “Episode 4” | John Strickland | Jed Mercurio | 21 April 2019 ( 2019-04-21 ) | 12.34 |
AC-12 discover that Corbett has links to Northern Ireland. Arnott arranges to meet Corbett, backed up by armed officers. Corbett tells Arnott that he had attacked Hastings’s wife Roisin who is now in hospital. Hastings orders Arnott via his to shoot Corbett, but he refuses. Corbett reveals the location of a meeting between the OCG and “H” and then escapes. AC-12 and the Cybercrime unit impersonate “H” and make contact with the OCG via a laptop. The OCG transport a group of women to their base to be trafficked. Corbett wants to free the women and thinks that McQueen will support him in this. However, the OCG kill Corbett as they realise that he is the rat. | ||||||
28 | 5 | “Episode 5” | Jed Mercurio | 28 April 2019 ( 2019-04-28 ) | 12.91 | |
The OCG dump the bodies of Corbett and Jackie Laverty which are later found by police. AC-12’s investigation into Operation Pear Tree is suspended. Hastings continues to make contact with the OCG. He persuades McQueen and Miroslav Minkowicz that he can handle the goods from the raid, until armed officers catch up with Hastings. Minkowicz is killed and McQueen is arrested. AC-12 discover that Hastings visited Lee Banks in prison, leading Fleming to raise concerns with senior officers. Hastings is suspended and investigated by DCS Patricia Carmichael, and is subsequently charged with conspiracy to murder Corbett. | ||||||
29 | 6 | “Episode 6” | Sue Tully | Jed Mercurio | 5 May 2019 ( 2019-05-05 ) | 13.67 |
Carmichael and her team continue to interview Hastings. They question him about the £50,000 in banknotes they found in his hotel room. Gill Biggeloe, who sits in on the interview, identifies errors in the police search procedure of Hastings’s hotel room. This leads Carmichael’s team to interrogate Hastings’s communications data for further evidence. Meanwhile, Fleming and Arnott revisit Corbett’s widow and DSU Powell. They discover that Biggeloe was involved in selecting Corbett for Operation Pear Tree, and specifically identified Hastings as someone to pursue. Fleming and Arnott present their findings to Hastings. Biggeloe was recruited by the OCG while she was working as a defence solicitor. She texts the OCG for her escape but to no avail. One of Carmichael’s team, PS Tina Tranter, attempts to stab Biggeloe but is shot by Arnott. The epilogue reveals that Operation Pear Tree is now officially closed. Fleming received a commendation for her investigation into Pear Tree. Arnott was commended alongside her after an independent panel cleared him in shooting Tranter. McQueen received immunity in exchange for providing information about the OCG, and now volunteers as a youth worker. Ryan Pilkington is now a student police officer. Biggeloe received immunity and a new identity. Hastings received a final written warning, but continues to lead AC-12. Moffatt, standing trial, claims that the £50,000 found in Hastings’s hotel room is only half of the sum that was handed to him. The remaining £50,000 is never found, but Hastings is seen approaching Corbett’s widow with an envelope. |
What is Hastings catchphrase in Line of Duty
3) “Mother of God” – Ted pulls out the famous line whenever he needs to vocalise his frustration, shock, anger or any other emotion you think of. And it was Dunbar who wanted to introduce the catchphrase in tribute to his late father. Speaking to the, Dunbar said: “He would say, ‘Mother of God’ all the time. He used to just say ‘Mother’ and we knew what he meant.”
Why did Hastings have 50k
Warning: contains major spoilers for Line of Duty series 5 For almost a decade, Ted Hastings’ AC-12 has been a thorn in the side of Line of Duty ‘s organised crime group. In series one, when the OCG blackmailed DCI Tony Gates with his lover’s corpse to make him stymie investigations into their money laundering and drug dealing operation, AC-12 uncovered it all – and they’d only been called in to investigate a freebie bacon sandwich.
In series two, when the OCG blackmailed DS Jayne Akers and DI Lindsay Denton to reroute the police transport of former gang leader-turned-witness Tommy Hunter so they could ambush the convoy and kill Hunter to stop him from talking, AC-12 sussed the lot. In series three, Hunter was found to have been one of 17 paedophiles including a senior police officer who sexually abused boys at a children’s home in the 1990s.
AC-12 exposed the abuse and sent that officer down. At the same time, they cleared colleague DS Steve Arnott who was being framed as a corrupt officer, and exposed the real corrupt AC-12 plant: DI Matthew ‘Dot’ Cottan, who was then killed by the OCG to stop him from talking. In series four, when the OCG tried to frame vulnerable young Michael Farmer for the murderer of two women they’d killed for the purpose of blackmailing police officers by threatening to plant their DNA on the corpses, AC-12 – with unexpected help from the subject of their investigation DCI Roz Huntley – got to the bottom of it.
- In short, the OCG’s life would be a great deal easier without Ted Hastings and his AC-12 colleagues Steve Arnott and Kate Fleming, who every series root out corrupt police officers in league with the gang.
- The most senior of those was once known by the codename ‘H’, as indicated in DI Cottan’s Dying Declaration, but after series five, ‘H’ is interpreted to mean that there were four corrupt senior police staff working with the OCG, only three of which have been uncovered so far.
In series five then, a plan was devised by corrupt police staff to rid them of meddling AC-12 for good. They would frame Ted Hastings as ‘H’, get him sent down, and have the team disbanded. To add insult to injury, they’d use Operation Pear Tree – an undercover op designed to discover whether or not there were institutional links between corrupt officers and organised crime – to do their dirty work. Senior Legal Counsel Gill Biggeloe (like bent series four solicitor Jimmy Lakewell ), was a former defence lawyer whose association with the OCG presumably started when she represented one of them in court years earlier. Working for Central Police, she took bribes from by the OCG to make things go their way – redacting evidence and using her legal nous to disrupt investigations into their criminal activity and protect corrupt officers in their pay.
Tasked with taking down Hastings, Biggeloe was lucky enough to be able to exploit an event from Ted’s past. As an officer of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1980s Belfast, Hastings had developed a friendship with Anne-Marie McGillis, a CHIS (covert human intelligence source) who was providing the RUC with info on the IRA.
When McGillis was discovered as a leak, she was kidnapped and killed, leaving her 10-year-old son John an orphan. John was adopted by relatives in Liverpool, took their name ‘Corbett’ and grew up to be an officer for Central Police. Whether this was all Gill’s idea or the brainchild of a mystery senior corrupt officer with whom she was in cahoots, Gill covertly approached DS John Corbett before Operation Pear Tree was due to start.
- She lied to him that Ted Hastings was the bent copper responsible for his mother’s death, and had tipped off the IRA that Anne-Marie was an informant in order to quash rumours about the two of them having an affair.
- She then made sure Corbett was selected as the UCO for Operation Pear Tree, and continued to manipulate things to make it seem as though Hastings was ‘H’.
AC-12 was drawn into Corbett’s story when they investigated an armed ambush on a police convoy transporting heroin with a street value of £10 million. Led by Corbett and OCG member Lisa McQueen, the gang killed three police officers and injured one – PS Jane Cafferty.
The investigation into Cafferty (who’d been blackmailed by the OCG into stopping the convoy to attend a diversionary car accident they’d set up) led them to stumble upon Operation Pear Tree, where they found that UCO John Corbett had lost contact with his handler and was on a one-man mission to uncover the identity of ‘H’ – who, thanks to Gill Biggeloe, he was convinced was Ted Hastings.
Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Cafferty wasn’t the only bent copper involved in the heroin ambush. The OCG had used the gambling debts of administrator Vihaan Malhotra to bribe him into passing on information that led to the attack.
When his involvement was mooted at AC-12, his cousin PC Maneet Bindra (who’d previously passed on information to bent copper ACC Hilton in exchange for him pulling strings to help Vihaan not lose his job) covered it up. She was discovered, interviewed, served a red notice and suspended pending a full inquiry.
To try to make things right, the suspended Maneet conducted her own undercover op, making contact with the OCG and offering to pass them information, while secretly using a recording device. She’d planned to bring AC-12 vital information on the gang to prove her loyalty.
- Instead, John Corbett discovered her bug and, due to his hatred of bent coppers, had her killed.
- Steve Arnott then tried to approach the OCG, and Corbett – recognising him as straight-up – started to pass him information on the gang’s activities and attempted to convince him that Hastings was H.
- Corbett set up OCG member Lee Banks by getting him to deliver bribe money to PS Cafferty while Steve was waiting to raid her home.
AC-12 thus got Banks, who was taken to Blackthorn Prison, and learned that Cafferty had been blackmailed by DI Cottan into working for the OCG years earlier. Corbett told Steve that the OCG was planning a raid on the Eastfield Depot, where ‘H’ would be unveiled.
AC-12 set up surveillance on the depot, and, despite being distracted by a fake diversion by another bent officer, watched as DCS Lester Hargreaves arrived on scene, told the OCG about the trackers AC-12 had placed in the stolen goods, and was shot dead by John Corbett. (Hargreaves was being blackmailed by the OCG, who’d retained the condoms he’d used when abusing an underage victim of their sexual trafficking, and were threatening to use them to plant his DNA on a dead body.
A photograph of him leaving the ‘brothel’ was temporarily thought to be a picture of Ted Hastings.) Corbett also told Steve how the OCG communicated with ‘H’, via a chat service on a laptop, which allowed AC-12 to intercept the communication and Hastings to pose as H to get info on the whereabouts of the stolen goods. All the way through, evidence was mounting to viewers that Ted could well have been ‘H’.
After Corbett shot Hargreaves, he went for broke, torturing Ted’s wife Roisin for information on her estranged husband. When Ted learned that Corbett was responsible for the attack on Roisin, he visited Lee Banks in Blackthorn prison, just for a chat, he maintains. Soon afterwards, Lisa McQueen learned from Banks that there was a rat in the OCG so she devised a plan to flush him out.
McQueen set up a fake meeting with ‘H’ at a shopping centre, telling only John Corbett about the plan. When the police were there waiting for them, she knew Corbett was the rat and had OCG member Ryan slit his throat. It didn’t help matters that Hastings went rogue after John Corbett’s disappearance, and enacted an unauthorised undercover op of his own. How had Biggeloe framed Hastings? She used the life savings Ted lost investing in a failed Irish property development years before to make him susceptible to a bribe. A retired officer in the pay of the OCG approached Hastings, pretending to give him the chance to recover his losses and lending him the seed money to do it.
That loan of £100k was actually dirty money easily traceable back to the OCG. Gill also used her burner phone to contact the OCG when she visited Ted at his office, so any records uncovered would look as though he was the one contacting the gang. Then she had a second, more successful attempt at seducing him (he’d already turned her down once before), and in his hotel bathroom, took hairs from his comb that were later planted on John Corbett’s corpse, to make it seem as though Ted was involved in his murder.
Unbeknownst to Biggeloe though, Corbett had made an audio recording of their first meeting which would prove her downfall. At the last minute, Arnott and Fleming retrieved the secret recording from Corbett’s wife Stephanie, and used it to exonerate Hastings.
Gill was arrested, took immunity and went into witness protection. Lisa McQueen gave evidence and took an immunity deal, but continued to protect the identity of active OCG member Ryan Pilkington, now a student police officer. Hastings was served with a final written warning for misconduct. Of the £100k bribe money Ted was given by Moffatt, only £50k was recovered.
The other £50k Ted gave to John Corbett’s widow, in an act that may have been morally just, but certainly wasn’t lawful. Ted Hastings continues to lead AC-12, but will he and his team ever fully recover from the aspersions cast on his integrity in series five? Series six will tell Line of Duty series 6 starts on Sunday the 21 st of March at 9pm on BBC One.
Is Ted Hastings a Mason?
Personal – Hastings was born on July 15th 1963 in Northern Ireland, to a Protestant father and Catholic mother. His father left when he was young, resulting in his mother raising him Catholic. He later moved to The City where the show takes place in the West Midlands in England.
Why did Hastings give Steph 50k
Episode 7 – After a consultation with occupational health, Steve Arnott is told his commanding offer ( Ted Hastings ) is to be informed of his addiction to pain killers. Wanting it to come from him first, Steve Arnott tells Hastings, but is surprised that Hastings already seems to know.
Later, Hastings tells Arnott that Steph Corbett had already told him. Whilst driving, Steph Corbett leaves Steve Arnott a voice message to check up on him. Steve listens but does not call back. Hastings admits to Steve Arnott and Kate Fleming that he told Lee Banks that there was an undercover police officer within the Organised Crime Group during an interview at HMP Blackthorn,
He admits that he knew there was a risk that he might blow John Corbett’s cover, but that he told Banks in the hope a risk to his cover would scare John Corbett into handing himself in. He tells Flemming and Arnott that Steph Corbett does not know about his potential involvement in the death of her husband, and that he profoundly regrets his actions.
- He also admits that he gave Steph Corbett the missing £50,000 of OCG bribe money but way of atonement.
- Ate Fleming asks Steve Arnott over a pint as to whether he plans to drive up to Liverpool that evening to see Steph Corbett, suggesting Steve is in danger of ending up alone and that Steph is a potential partner.
Arnott says he would like to go and see Steph Corbett but doesn’t think it is a good idea as he doesn’t see it becoming a serious relationship.
Is Line of Duty based on fact?
It has become all too apparent that many of Line Of Duty’s current storylines are based on real criminal cases While Line Of Duty is very obviously fictional, it’s no secret that Jed Mercurio has taken inspiration from a number of true crime cases over the years.
Will Line of Duty ever come back
When will the potential new series of Line of Duty be out? – Well, it was originally suggested that filming could have started as early as spring 2023, and that we might see new episodes as early as this Christmas. However, with no official announcement yet, and with spring now a distant memory, it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing any new episodes for a while.
Perhaps the reason for this is that Martin Compston is returning for a second season of Amazon’s The Rig. Upon the announcement of the actor’s involvement in the new season, reports suggested that he would be required to film through the summer, meaning that he probably wouldn’t be able to pull on his Steve Arnott waistcoat until at the earliest.
Keep an eye on virginradio.co.uk for more Line of Duty updates. Meanwhile, Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio has got a new ITV drama in the works, which will be led by Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt. Watch series 1-6 of Line of Duty on BBC iPlayer.
Is there a Line of Duty 2023?
Line of Duty, a BBC One series, is returning next year with a special three-episode series. Fans hope for the answers to the questions left unanswered in the previous season. – Agencies British drama series ‘Line of Duty’ is coming back with a three-part special on BBC One in 2023, as per reports. Adrian Dunbar, Martin Compston, and Vicky McClure, the show stars, have signed up for the upcoming episodes. The next session might air on Christmas 2023.
The show that has completed its six seasons was shrouded in uncertainty with fans inquiring about its arrival. BBC One also did not post any updates regarding the continuation of the show. But the storyline of season six had left ample space for the possibility of a new season. There has been an outcry among the fans over the ending of season 6.
The show’s stars earlier had given the indication of the new season. A source of a TV insider said that there was a very strong feeling, particularly among fans, that there was unfinished business with ‘Line of Duty’. Viewers were not satisfied with the ending of series six and were crying out for a more stunning conclusion.
- The new episodes would hopefully answer the questions that remained unanswered at the end of season 6.
- The fans have been asking questions such as whether H is the person that the villain of the show AC-12 has been looking for or if it was some other person.
- Many fans hope that the decision to make three episodes rather than the usual six or seven, is an attempt to fix the storyline that remained unsettled in season 6.
The show’s stars also feel there is plenty of room for the new season. Dunbar, who has previously also talked about the possibility of the new season, spoke about the confirmation of the new season and the storyline of season six and new episodes. In an interview with ITV, Dunbar said that the story could continue.
Was buckles the fourth man
Why was Buckells so terrified when Lakewell was killed? – This turned out to be a cunning bit of writing by Mercurio. When Lakewell was killed by Carl Banks, we saw Buckells shaking with fear in the cell as the murder took place. Seeing Buckells act in such a cowardly way and get a warning not to be a rat, threw us off the scent that he had anything to do with Gail Vella or the OCG.
- He looked like an incompetent victim.
- Like Jo Davidson, we saw a hapless police officer in Buckells and didn’t believe that someone so bumbling could be controlling anything.
- But as Buckells revealed in his interview, The Fourth Man was never a big scary boss, he was just an intermediate.
- Following the deaths of Tommy Hunter and Dot Cottan, Buckells had just become a useful connecting point for the disparate OCG groups.
Happy to do favours, clear any blockers or problems caused by the police and take home his share of the cash, Buckells was the perfect cover for the OCG and able to hide in plain sight. Motivated by greed and allowed to function because the force was too weak and soft on standards and integrity, Buckells failed his way upwards with devastating effect.
Episode 5 – The nominal Davidson is related to is revealed to be Tommy Hunter, the former leader of the Organised Crime Group who was murdered in Series 2 for his silence. Her exact relation to him is never verbalised, however a note on an AC-12 case board states that the DNA analysis suggests she is “both his niece and daughter”.
Her next of kin, Samantha Davidson, is also explained to be deceased by DC Chloe Bishop, Superintendent Ted Hastings notes that Davidson has kept her familial links with organised crime a secret throughout her time in Central Police, and this increases the likelihood that she is a corrupt officer.
Davidson questions DI Kate Fleming as to how AC-12 came to know that the White Rock Industrial Estate was one of the locations the Murder Investigation Team was planning on raiding as part of Operation Lighthouse, Fleming openly admits she informed her former colleagues, as they are conducting a lawful enquiry into Gail Vella ‘s murder and she is obliged to assist.
This infuriates Davidson, who coldly requests that Fleming request a transfer away from Hillside Lane Station, stating she does not want to “ruin her career” otherwise. After communicating with the unknown senior figure of the Organised Crime Group, Davidson is instructed to kill DI Kate Fleming to prevent her from further uncovering the conspiracy.
The next day she asks Fleming if they can meet outside of work to discuss something personal, and apologises for her previous distant behaviour. That evening, Ryan Pilkington is sent to her apartment at Croxford Street Residence, and the two get in her car.
Having previously asked Kate to meet her for a social drink at Frederico’s Biergarten, Ryan orders Davidson to change the location to an abandoned car park. Fleming arrives at the new location, and is met by a shaken Davidson, who begins apologising to her. Ryan then gets out the back of Davidsons car and aims a pistol at Kate, remarking that she should “have accepted the out” when Davidson requested she transfer away from Hillside Lane Station,
Revealing she knows who he is, Fleming insults Ryan and questions his ability to kill, noting he “only had the bottle when someone was half drowned” (in reference to his killing of PC Lisa Patel ) and is just a “little boy”. He retorts by confessing he was responsible for the death of both John Corbett and Maneet Bindra, and is not concerned about forensic contamination as the weapon is workshopped and uses untraceable custom ammunition.
Fleming tells him that he has been under surveillance by AC-12 and it is the end of the line for him and Davidson, which incenses him further. Davidson is shocked to discover she has been under watch, but is not surprised stating she would have done the same in Flemings position. She tries to go back to her car, telling Ryan she has “played her part” and “shouldn’t have to watch” Fleming be killed.
Insistent that she was aware of the surveillance, Ryan orders her away from the car and fires a warning shot above her head. This distracts him long enough for Fleming to draw her concealed firearm (which she obtained permission from the Strategic Firearms Commander to carry due to the threat posed by Pilkington, and is also authorised to carry as a trained Authorised Firearms Officer ).
Will there be another Line of Duty?
More like this – It’s still possible that Mercurio will get the next season written and filmed in time for a 2022 air date, but at this point we think it more likely that Line of Duty will return in spring 2023, Martin Compston told ES Magazine that it would be travesty not to work with his Line of Duty co-stars again, but that they all need a break first : “The idea that I would never work with all the guys again together would be heartbreaking.
How many seasons of Line of Duty are there
Line of Duty | |
---|---|
No. of series | 6 |
No. of episodes | 36 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers | Stephen Wright (BBC) Simon Heath (World Productions) Jed Mercurio (Series 2–5) |